Back to School on Monday

[fondue zoo]

Our school in Bangkok has officially announced they will be opening on the 15th to all ages today.

They posted their "approval" letter from the health department online.

 

As there are still so many people not fully vaccinated it's not clear how they will prevent kids from bringing the virus home to parents who haven't yet received any vaccine.

Especially with the kindergarten classes, the kids more than likely will be fine, but they can still carry the Delta variant. 

Keeping them socially distanced all day will be akin to herding cats.

 

 

Edited November 12, 2021 by fondue zoo

[brewsterbudgen]

Seems like all schools in Bangkok are reopening on Monday.  Fantastic news.  I suspect the Covid protocols will gradually be relaxed, in practice, if not officially.

 

When the history of Covid and lockdowns is written, closing schools for a long period of time (my son's school has been closed since April!) will be seen to be a huge over-reaction.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10178633/School-closures-DONT-work-New-study-finds-Japans-classroom-shutdowns-didnt-stop-spread-Covid.html

[2long]

3 minutes ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Seems like all schools in Bangkok are reopening on Monday.  Fantastic news.  I suspect the Covid protocols will gradually be relaxed, in practice, if not officially.

 

When the history of Covid and lockdowns is written, closing schools for a long period of time (my son's school has been closed since April!) will be seen to be a huge over-reaction.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10178633/School-closures-DONT-work-New-study-finds-Japans-classroom-shutdowns-didnt-stop-spread-Covid.html

ANY link from the Daily Fail needs to be taken with a bucket of salt!

[brewsterbudgen]

6 minutes ago, 2long said:

ANY link from the Daily Fail needs to be taken with a bucket of salt!

Yes. I'll see if can find a link to the original study.

 

Here you go: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01571-8

Edited November 12, 2021 by brewsterbudgen

[4MyEgo]

16 hours ago, brewsterbudgen said:

Seems like all schools in Bangkok are reopening on Monday.  Fantastic news.  I suspect the Covid protocols will gradually be relaxed, in practice, if not officially.

 

When the history of Covid and lockdowns is written, closing schools for a long period of time (my son's school has been closed since April!) will be seen to be a huge over-reaction.

 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-10178633/School-closures-DONT-work-New-study-finds-Japans-classroom-shutdowns-didnt-stop-spread-Covid.html

We have held two of our eldest back since they got vaccinated on 1 November, however are returning Monday with the others who are younger and haven't been vaccinated, suffice to say mum is still not vaccinated thanks to the government for palming odd 1.1 million doses of the 1.9 million doses of Moderna who came in at the end of the ordering. I suppose she is no left wide open thanks to the government who failed her and the Thai's with their mismanagement from day one, trying to palm off Sinovac which they knew was a dud and continue to so, so as not to lose face.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/oct/24/covid-outbreaks-have-shut-more-than-320-schools-across-nsw-and-victoria-in-past-three-weeks

 

 

[matchar]

My school is reopening for students on Monday and teachers and students have all been given the "Lepu" ATK tests that were provided to all schools by the Thai government. These have been banned in the USA as they are supposed to be very unreliable and have a lot of false positives and false negatives.

 

They have also told us that if we test positive we must pay for our own PCR test and treatment and we will not be allowed to isolate at home so it's looking like an absolute shambles as expected.

[Scott]

Schools can remain open if the virus is under control, there is good testing protocols and mitigation.  In countries like Japan that is a lot easier than in some other countries.   First, like a lot of Asian countries, compliance by the population is high and second they have the resources for things like proper ventilation systems.  

 

The schools in the area in the US where I am have had fairly major problems.  First, there was no state-wide mask mandate, so it was left to individual school districts.   Some had mask mandates, some didn't.  Then the gov't decreed that no school could mandate masks.  

 

Of the schools that had mask mandates, the schools had relatively low numbers of cases and were able to remain open.  Schools without mask mandates eventually ended up having to close -- there are regulations about what constitutes 'open'.  A school cannot list a day as a school day if less than a certain number of students are in attendance or it is less than a specified number of hours.  

 

At the height of the surge, the number of students sick or testing positive was simply too high to have schools open.  

 

I should also note, that we had an inordinate number of teachers who became seriously ill and a high number who died of Covid.  The schools are now operating with a major teacher shortage and bus service is not provided for most students because of a lack of drivers.  Most bus drivers were older, often retired, people who also suffered extensively from Covid and of those remaining many simply chose not to return to a high-risk situation.

 

 

 

[blackprince]

It's a difficult issue. The intersection between public policy and epidemioolgy is not an easy one to navigate, especially for schools.

 

A large number of people in the UK resisted re-opening of schools because they believed it would lead to a large increase in cases. They turned out to be right. The significant increase in cases in the UK is due to mainly to the large number of school age students testing positive. But overwhelmingly these students will just shrug off the illness, the evidence for this is uncontestable now. And the benefit of that is long term natural immunity.

 

On the other hand they can transmit the illness to older family members of course. The fact that many of these family members are double or triple vaxed complicates the policy discussion even further.

 

Where I'm a bit confused about the policy in Thailand is that schools were closed when cases were low, and are reopening now cases are high, though there is substantial regional variation of course.

 

One thing's for sure, I don't envy teachers in Bangkok in large unventilated classes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bbko]

Anyone know the policy IF a fully vaccinated kid catches covid and showing mild symptoms (low grade fever, fatigue)?  Is that an automatic hospital stay or can they stay at home? 

 

All adults at home fully vax'd, My son isn't sick but I want to be informed/ready just in case he does catch the virus. Also if it makes a difference he has medical insurance through his school as well as registered in the government health system.

[blackprince]

Good question. It's a complicated question, and probably a complicated answer.

 

In our school district several hundred children have tested positive, but ony 4 or 5 of them were hospitalised and that was because it was considered that their symptoms were serious enough to require hospitalisation ie it was for the students' benefit. As with adults, visits are not allowed.

 

But I can't say this is policy all over the country.

 

To date there have been various bodies responsible for covid policy that has affected schools - national. provincial, amphur, and individual schools themselves, plus the Ministry of Education, both local and national. And, depending on what the issue is about, local bodies may over-ride national guidelines, or not, as the case may be.

[tweedledee2]

   The rural Surin government school our daughter attends, opened Nov 1st. Only students, 12 years and over received Pfizer vaccine prior to the school re-opening. Our daughter who turns 12 on Nov 19 was denied the vaccination. While she is among the youngest in her class, she is also the tallest at 155cm and weighs 41kg.